SOILGUARD project: Sustainable soil management to unleash soil biodiversity potential and increase environmental, economic and social wellbeing

BARRAL, PAULA; SIRIMARCO, XIMENA; AUER, ALEJANDRA; MUÑOZ, SEBASTIAN; GAITÁN, JUAN

presentación virtual

Congreso; 4th International ESP Latin America and Caribbean Conference; 2023

Ecosystem Services Partnership

SoilGuard is a project funded by the European Union under the Horizon 2020 initiative. Theproject started in mid-2021 and will conclude in 2025, it is organized by a consortium of 25institutions from Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The overall objective is to createrobust evidence, through transdisciplinary research, on the links between soil biodiversityand its multifunctionality, and how these prevent land degradation and climate change.Based on this evidence, the project aims to promote sustainable soil management,increasing the societal perception of soil biodiversity as a nature-based key solution forprotecting natural capital while enhancing social and economic well-being. Argentina'sparticipation in this project aims to evaluate the impact of land degradation and soilmanagement on soil biodiversity and ecosystem services in agricultural systems in thesoutheast of the Buenos Aires province. A land degradation gradient was generated, with twocategories based on the combination of previous information on soil organic carbon contentand potential water erosion. Soil and vegetation samples were collected during October andNovember 2022 from a total of 20 wheat or barley farms, 10 falling under the "lowdegradation" category and 10 under "medium-high degradation”. Additionally, half of thesampled plots in each category carried out organic agriculture and the other half traditionalagriculture. Various determinations were conducted, including bulk density, infiltration,decomposition rate and litter stabilization, and foliar damage. Furthermore, the landownersor decision-makers of the farms were interviewed to understand their management practicesand their perception of the importance of soil biodiversity and ecosystem services. Inaddition, other important physico-chemical soil properties and soil enzymatic activities arealso being analyzed. Preliminary results in Argentina indicate that organic agriculture showsbetter performance in the analyzed indicators. The primary information collected in thisproject will allow knowing how soil biodiversity affects soil multifunctionality and ecosystem services in different regions of the planet, along with the impact of land degradation, soilmanagement, and climate change.